1 Corinthians 3

 3:1-9.  Have the Corinthians been born again?  If they have, they are certainly not yet mature in Christ (1-3).  In that they quarrel and try to create divisions in the indivisible gospel of Christ, they show the natural man’s inability to understand spiritual things (2:14).  How immature is it for the crop to quarrel about which laborer is most important, when the field, the seed, the laborers, and the increase all come from the Lord of the harvest?  The work of the planter and the one that waters are complimentary.

     3:10-15.  The new metaphor of a building is employed, with Paul by God’s grace laying well the only possible foundation of the church, which is Jesus Christ (10-11).  The judgment day will test the work of all who build on it (12-15).

     3:16-17.  Each individual who is a part of the corporate building of the church is also himself a temple of God, for the Spirit of God dwells in each one.  God’s retribution will fall on anyone who destroys his temple with false teaching or unholy living.

     3:18.  Forget the wisdom of this world.  Rest not on any foundation of your own, but on the eternal foundation of the power of God, as seen in the weakness and foolishness of Christ crucified (18; cf.1:18, 2:5, 3:11).

     3:19.  This wise warning comes from Job 5:13.  In the context, Eliphaz is speaking to Job.  Ironically, when the Lord judged, Eliphaz himself was the wise man that was caught in his craftiness (Job 42:7).

     3:20-23.  All things belong to you (21-22; cf. Mt.6:33; Luke 12:32; Ro.8:32).  Why the unseemly pushing and shoving, when God has freely given us all things?

     It is doubted by many that Cephas (Peter) himself had been to Corinth, but apparently those taught by him, perhaps even sent by him, had been (22).